The Shrine

PostPosted:**Wed Aug 27, 2008 4:31 am**

it's officially on live right now. I'm going to download it now, go to bed, and then get up and play it. Anyone else gonna get it and play it with me?

PostPosted:**Wed Aug 27, 2008 4:52 am**

A Haruhi Suzumiya char in your profile frame. The plot thickens.

PostPosted:**Wed Aug 27, 2008 6:34 am**

No anime-ing up this thread, you!!

I'm downloading it as we speak. What an awesome month or so it's been for downloadable games.

PostPosted:**Wed Aug 27, 2008 8:06 am**

Eric wrote:A Haruhi Suzumiya char in your profile frame. The plot thickens.

I thought that's who it was! Haha interesting... great show too.

I think I asked this before... but what's so great about Castle Crashers? To me it doesn't look any different than those side scrolling flash games where you just beat up enemies that fall from the sky.

PostPosted:**Wed Aug 27, 2008 8:53 am**

Eric wrote:A Haruhi Suzumiya char in your profile frame. The plot thickens.

THAT'S why I recognized him!

PostPosted:**Wed Aug 27, 2008 3:37 pm**

anyways....

don't take my word for it, watch this nifty video review and then download it and play it with me! huzzah!

PostPosted:**Wed Aug 27, 2008 3:49 pm**

bovine wrote:anyways....

don't take my word for it, watch this nifty video review and then download it and play it with me! huzzah!

Ahhh so that's Castle Crashers, kinda cool seeing those Newgrounds IPs getting transformed into full games.

PostPosted:**Wed Aug 27, 2008 4:55 pm**

Eric wrote:
bovine wrote:anyways....

don't take my word for it, watch this nifty video review and then download it and play it with me! huzzah!
Ahhh so that's Castle Crashers, kinda cool seeing those Newgrounds IPs getting transformed into full games.

Yeah its the Alien Homnid guy, i think AH is an unlockable character. NG ownz.

PostPosted:**Wed Aug 27, 2008 5:02 pm**

not bad looking at all... definitely sounds fun with the right group of people.

My Xbox JUST came back from the shop today, but I'm off Friday anyway. Anyone else aside from Bovine get it?

PostPosted:**Wed Aug 27, 2008 9:23 pm**

I got it! If I see you online, bovine, I will hit you up.

It's fun, but hard as hell! I'm getting my ass kicked.

PostPosted:**Wed Aug 27, 2008 10:38 pm**

I hated the difficulty of Alien Homnid, so I'll pass. Also, I'm in the "what's the difference between this and a flash game" crowd.

PostPosted:**Wed Aug 27, 2008 10:47 pm**

at least download the demo. Jumping and spamming X really does a world of difference against most bosses. The only problem I've had so far are the thieve's arena and when I didn't know what to do on the carriage boss.

PostPosted:**Wed Aug 27, 2008 11:13 pm**

I played some of the demo today and it was pretty rad. Definitely a game to be played with others as opposed to alone. Still undecided on the purchase, though. I've got Soul Calibur, Pixeljunk Monsters, Valkyrie Profile, Advance Wars all on the go now.

PostPosted:**Thu Aug 28, 2008 8:21 am**

I played the demo and loved it. But I'm not sure whether I'll get it right away. I just bought Braid so I can play it during my vacation to the Outer Banks next week. Maybe once I finish that though.

PostPosted:**Thu Aug 28, 2008 9:03 am**

SineSwiper wrote:I hated the difficulty of Alien Homnid, so I'll pass. Also, I'm in the "what's the difference between this and a flash game" crowd.

I just thought Hominid was repetitive. It was fun for an afternoon with a friend but nothing overly special.

PostPosted:**Thu Aug 28, 2008 1:15 pm**

I bought it (I have a bunch of points just sitting there anyway). It's a good game - a fun little side-scrolling hack-n-slash. ...but that's all it is.

My feeling is that, as a single player game, there really isn't all that much to the game. Where it really shines is during co-op and multiplayer.

If you are gonna buy it as a single player game, it's probably only marginally worth it.

PostPosted:**Thu Aug 28, 2008 1:19 pm**

I'm pretty sure you can do some combination of local and live multiplayer. Say if you have a wife, girlfriend, friends, or whatever who want to play with you. Then you can all play with me! Yay!

PostPosted:**Sat Aug 30, 2008 12:33 am**

so whats the verdict now that you've all played it? Worth the $15? I've heard there are some multiplayer connectivity issues?

PostPosted:**Sat Aug 30, 2008 12:41 am**

I really, really, really like it. I was really excited for it and it does not disappoint. I could be a bad judge on this since I already own figures of the characters before the game came out. I played with my roommate over live and we couldn't connect on our first try, but it worked the second time. There was a funny little picture up on the behemoth website about it.... but I have not experienced it first hand. I would say if you intend to play with friends [(and me) or even just one other person makes the game way way way more fun] then it is EASILY worth the entrance fee. If you plan to play it alone.... maybe not.

In summation - Buy it and play it with me.

PostPosted:**Sat Aug 30, 2008 10:49 am**

I just might do that...I saw another friend of mine playing it the other day, and the appeal of being able to play it with someone else locally AND online at the same time (something that's getting more and more rare... seriously WTF COD4?) would almost be worth it there.

I've been feeling I need to buy SOMETHING to play this weekend and commemorate my Xbox's return... $15 is a hell of a lot better than blowing $60 on Too Human which will most likely disappoint

PostPosted:**Sat Aug 30, 2008 11:29 am**

Tessian wrote:so whats the verdict now that you've all played it? Worth the $15? I've heard there are some multiplayer connectivity issues?

I played the demo through and as a single player game, it definitely won't be worth the $15 IMO. You're essentially talking about a stylish Double Dragon / Dungeons and Dragons / X-Men arcade game. Much like Alien Hominid, it would be a fun afternoon or so with friends, but nothing to write home about

PostPosted:**Sat Aug 30, 2008 12:31 pm**

we'll have to get a party together sometime. I'm loving it..

PostPosted:**Sun Aug 31, 2008 1:18 am**

thanks for the games, my girlfriend had fun playing with you guys. Thanks for being gentle with her.

PostPosted:**Sun Aug 31, 2008 8:33 am**

Played the demo. Was not impressed with it.

PostPosted:**Sun Aug 31, 2008 10:31 am**

bovine wrote:thanks for the games, my girlfriend had fun playing with you guys. Thanks for being gentle with her.

Being gentle?? She kicked my ass!!

Haha that was pretty fun though, just wish my character was of a higher level so I didn't keep getting creamed. Are you sure there's no way to sign on friends as a guest so not everyone needs a gold account in MP? That seems pretty lame if it's not the case.

I found it a blast to play, and the demo doesn't do it justice. The 3 of us blew through most of the first half of the game, but it was fun to do and I can see replaying those levels again and again. I mean comeon-- who doesn't want to do the deer race through the abandoned mill again just for the chance of getting the deer is powered by diarrhea?

PostPosted:**Sun Aug 31, 2008 8:15 pm**

I stand corrected and Bovine is a loser-- you only need 1 Gold account to play Castle Crashers on Live with friends (local on your Xbox). Just follows the <NAME> [1] convention. So that's awesome

PostPosted:**Sun Aug 31, 2008 10:28 pm**

Tessian wrote:I stand corrected and Bovine is a loser-- you only need 1 Gold account to play Castle Crashers on Live with friends (local on your Xbox). Just follows the <NAME> [1] convention. So that's awesome

we'll have to get another one together this weekend. I'm loving it.

PostPosted:**Tue Sep 02, 2008 10:33 pm**

Tempted to get a gold account to play this... but then this is the ONLY thing I wanna play on live... dunno if it's worth it :p

PostPosted:**Tue Sep 02, 2008 10:39 pm**

Oracle wrote:Tempted to get a gold account to play this... but then this is the ONLY thing I wanna play on live... dunno if it's worth it :p

What's a 1 month card worth, $5?

I'm stuck at the 4 bosses in the castle... I don't think I can kill them all in a row without some help or serious grinding

PostPosted:**Tue Sep 02, 2008 10:45 pm**

oracle and I beat the game in one sitting yesterday. We were a couple low levels (4 or something) to start and whipped through the game in 2 hours or so.

PostPosted:**Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:00 am**

bovine wrote:oracle and I beat the game in one sitting yesterday. We were a couple low levels (4 or something) to start and whipped through the game in 2 hours or so.

I'm not a hater of the game or anything, but if you play the demo, it really feels like a Flash game. Just like Alien Hominid

PostPosted:**Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:31 am**

Zeus wrote:
bovine wrote:oracle and I beat the game in one sitting yesterday. We were a couple low levels (4 or something) to start and whipped through the game in 2 hours or so.
I'm not a hater of the game or anything, but if you play the demo, it really feels like a Flash game. Just like Alien Hominid

I don't understand if you're saying that it being like a flash game is bad or not. I am a big fan of the metal slug series, so I really liked alien hominid because it brought that feeling of controlled chaos back. It also added another layer of depth by letting you bury under the ground to avoid attacks (until you suffocated) and your ability to hop on enemies. With castle crashers you have the same sort of formula with a different genre. It improves upon the final fight/streets of rage/river city ransom beatem-up genre. It has some pretty enjoyable multiplayer, and the rewarding ability to level up (and increased magic potency that goes with that). This game doesn't have to be everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoy it.

Alot of the games that hit XBLA (and the PSN) could easily be flash games. The simplicity of bionic commando is no different, though the extras that come with rearmed must be a nice bonus. Pixeljunk Monsters or Eden, Everyday Shooter, Geometry Wars, that Championship Pacman game, etc. could all be turned into flash games because they work on relatively simple mechanics. It's lame that you don't like the game, because I think it's really awesome.

PostPosted:**Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:56 am**

To me, a Flash game is something you play for 10-30 minutes at a time not something you sit there and beat. They're meant more for quick, time-wasting not for completion.

BC is a remake of an old game that actually hampered by its legacy as it's a little too faithful. So you really can't expect too much more than NES size. It has that with some challenges. It's good for what it is, particularly if you're a fan of the old one. Just worth it at $10 IMO. But a flash game for $15? Not so much

PostPosted:**Wed Sep 03, 2008 1:26 pm**

as a singleplayer experience, I totally think that bionic commando is a better value than castle crashers. However, the multiplayer component is a huge draw for me with castle crashers. It has tons of unlockable content that (if you so desire) you can go back and search for the extra animals orbs, weapons, and secret characters. I love playing it my girlfriend, and I've really enjoyed playing it with you guys, and my pal in Calgary. I was just about to get bionic commando before my 360 died, I guess I'll have to wait for that one. As a singleplayer game, I do think that it's a little harder to sit with long periods of time with. However, the multiplayer component is both competitive AND cooperative, so it is much more amusing than just slaughtering wave after wave of enemies alone when you could be stealing eachothers gold and princess kisses.

PostPosted:**Wed Sep 03, 2008 3:14 pm**

Co-op in Bionic Commando is quite fun, actually. There are some minor hiccups, such as you actually can't see where you're going in some parts when the screen's split, but other than that, co-op is tons of fun. I haven't tried the multi modes yet

Again, Castle Crashers and Alien Hominid are fun...for an afternoon. Not really worth $15 though

PostPosted:**Wed Sep 03, 2008 3:46 pm**

You're just not going to back down on this are you? I'm sorry you didn't have extravagant amounts of fun with the demo. I haven't even played the demo, I bought the game at 1am the day it came out. I don't think there are a lot of games worth defending this fervently, but I think that castle crashers has enough meat inside of it in terms of depth (leveling characters, secret characters, animal orbs, and the various weapons), art style, multiplayer (offline and on), and humour. If this game isn't your cup of tea, then it's not going to be fun for you, I get it. It does have more content in it than an afternoon worth of playing. I played it exclusively for the first two days after it came out with people here from the shrine, my roommate, and my girlfriend.

If you don't like it, fine. Just don't make sweeping generalizations based off a demo. The too human demo turned me off the game, but then the poor reviews it got kept me away. It's lame that you won't try out the full version (maybe one of your pals has it), because it would be awesome to play with you over live.

PostPosted:**Wed Sep 03, 2008 3:58 pm**

I'm lazy on this particular issue, someone summarize the game in short please =P

PostPosted:**Wed Sep 03, 2008 4:01 pm**

bovine wrote:anyways....

don't take my word for it, watch this nifty video review and then download it and play it with me! huzzah!

PostPosted:**Wed Sep 03, 2008 4:08 pm**

Thanks, I'll take a look at it when I get home.

I was forwarded a description: "Castle Crashers is a classic side-scrolling beat-'em-up infused with cartoon visuals and absurd humor, and the result is a highly amusing romp." Is this accurate?

PostPosted:**Wed Sep 03, 2008 4:53 pm**

bovine wrote:You're just not going to back down on this are you? I'm sorry you didn't have extravagant amounts of fun with the demo. I haven't even played the demo, I bought the game at 1am the day it came out. I don't think there are a lot of games worth defending this fervently, but I think that castle crashers has enough meat inside of it in terms of depth (leveling characters, secret characters, animal orbs, and the various weapons), art style, multiplayer (offline and on), and humour. If this game isn't your cup of tea, then it's not going to be fun for you, I get it. It does have more content in it than an afternoon worth of playing. I played it exclusively for the first two days after it came out with people here from the shrine, my roommate, and my girlfriend.

If you don't like it, fine. Just don't make sweeping generalizations based off a demo. The too human demo turned me off the game, but then the poor reviews it got kept me away. It's lame that you won't try out the full version (maybe one of your pals has it), because it would be awesome to play with you over live.

Playing over Live? That's a whole different argument altogether :-) I'm saving up my 1-month cards (4 of them now) for Gears 2 and Rock Band 2.

None of my friends or family who have a 360 are really into the downloadable stuff. The one friend I have may be interested when he gets a 360 (likely in the next couple of months) but he'll balk at the $15 price tag even more than I would. I'm actually a lot more inclined to download stuff than they are.

I only played the demo, yes, but isn't that the idea of a demo, to give you a positive impression of the game to try to convince you to buy it? From what I played (I gained 3 levels during the demo) it felt a lot like a game I would fiddle with as opposed to sit down and play, even with friends. For the price tag, I would want at least 8 hours out of it and I don't think I'm gonna get it. And considering how little I'm playing right now it's really not worth it for me.

I try quite a bit of demos on Live. If I don't care about the game I would never download the demo so there's always at least that slight chance that I want to download it (other than Buku Sudoku, which I got for research purposes). It's not like I'm completely against the idea of paying for the games, I just don't think the vast majority are worth the asking price. Even Pacman: CE (one of my fav Arcade games) isn't really worth the $10 price tag, you probably won't play it for more than 3 hours or so. But as a $5 game or part of an $8 or $10 Arcade disc that includes Feeding Frenzy, Uno, and Luxor 2 (we shall never discuss the atrocity that is Boom Boom Rocket ever again), it's a freakin' steal. And had I actually tried the Carcassone demo I probably would have bought it (then been subsequently PISSED that I would have gotten it for free). It's definitely worth the $10 and I played it like CRAZY with the 48 hour Live cards I had, even more than Gears or GTA4. But so far, that's it.

It's the same for the VC for me as well. Of all the games that have come out so far, I've only grabbed Super Mario 2 (Jap version) because we never got the full game (the one on the All-Stars disc wasn't the full game). I've already put a good 3 or 4 hours into it as well...and that was $6. I probably would have bought Sin and Punishment (I've beaten it and I can definitely say it's worth $12 for the 5 to 8 or so hours you'll get out of it....your first time through before you try to get the better scores) if I didn't already have the cart. Same with some of the other stuff they've released (Super Mario RPG comes to mind right away; it's easily worth the $8 if you don't have the cart). But having the cart means I can pull it out anytime and play it so why spend the money on it again?

But that's also the major difference between the VC and the Arcade. The VC games are older but they're very full games, often taking many, many hours to complete. The Arcade stuff just isn't that way for me. Sure, I probably would already bought Braid, Castle Crashers, and Penny Arcade if they were 800 points instead of 1200 points. But if you look at the equivalent games on the VC, you get more content and play time with a lot of NES games, they're just older games.

Also, the PSN has it right over both the VC and Arcade. Give me a price on the product, don't give me freakin' points that I can only buy in chunks resulting in wastage. There's lots of $5.99 or $6.99 stuff on there. On Arcade and VC, they've got set points costs (like 800 points for an original Arcade game or 1000 points for an N64 game; foreigns not included). If the VC and Arcade started to stagger the prices a bit more, it would be better IMO. Some Arcade games I may get for, say, 600 points. But they insist on 800 points. Same with the VC. You can't tell me that every SNES game is worth 800 points like Mario RPG.

PostPosted:**Wed Sep 03, 2008 5:22 pm**

Zeus are we going to have to start banning you from XBL related threads now you threadjacking whore? WE ALL KNOW you're a penny-pinching jew who believes he's sticking it to the man by stockpiling "free" Live cards and saving that $40/year to spend on bad movies instead. Fuck it gets annoying when you bring it up in any Xbox related thread.

If we stickied one of your dozens of posts about this subject would you stop bringing it up all the time?

PostPosted:**Wed Sep 03, 2008 5:27 pm**

Zeus wrote:
Tessian wrote:Zeus are we going to have to start banning you from XBL related threads now you threadjacking whore? WE ALL KNOW you're a penny-pinching jew who believes he's sticking it to the man by stockpiling "free" Live cards and saving that $40/year to spend on bad movies instead. Fuck it gets annoying when you bring it up in any Xbox related thread.

If we stickied one of your dozens of posts about this subject would you stop bringing it up all the time?
I was responding to bovine BTW

Because you just HAD to bring up your same old tired shit when he just made an innocent comment about how he was enjoying the game. Give it a fucking rest or start another thread so it's easier to ignore you.

PostPosted:**Wed Sep 03, 2008 5:27 pm**

Tessian wrote:Zeus are we going to have to start banning you from XBL related threads now you threadjacking whore? WE ALL KNOW you're a penny-pinching jew who believes he's sticking it to the man by stockpiling "free" Live cards and saving that $40/year to spend on bad movies instead. Fuck it gets annoying when you bring it up in any Xbox related thread.

If we stickied one of your dozens of posts about this subject would you stop bringing it up all the time?

bovine and I were having a discussion where he questioned why and I explained. But if you'd like, I'll restrict my responses in these cases....or you could just skip through it like I always do when there's these insane arguments over nothing

You responded while I was editing.....

PostPosted:**Wed Sep 03, 2008 5:51 pm**

Zeus wrote:You can't tell me that every SNES game is worth 800 points like Mario RPG.

Mario RPG's used cartridge alone goes for 40 bucks on Ebay. It's valued considerably more than 800 points by purchasers.

PostPosted:**Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:34 pm**

I think it's a problem with a lot of XBL demos. The Braid demo wasn't bad at all. It gave you enough to show you how it works and what you were getting into.

The BC:R demo was total shit, however. Barely gave you anything to play with and kept me from playing the game for a while, since I was judging my experience based on the demo. They could have given you two full levels (with bosses, dammit), and it would have been a valid demo.

The same with Castle Crashers, maybe. Though, I still probably won't buy the game.

PostPosted:**Thu Sep 04, 2008 3:12 am**

SineSwiper wrote:I think it's a problem with a lot of XBL demos. The Braid demo wasn't bad at all. It gave you enough to show you how it works and what you were getting into.

The BC:R demo was total shit, however. Barely gave you anything to play with and kept me from playing the game for a while, since I was judging my experience based on the demo. They could have given you two full levels (with bosses, dammit), and it would have been a valid demo.

The same with Castle Crashers, maybe. Though, I still probably won't buy the game.

I hated Braid the demo. then I actually sat down with it at a friends house and explored and actually played for a short while and now I'm waiting for my paycheck to reload the live points and buy it. But from the demo I thought it was utter shite. Castle Crashers I was also kind of meh on. then I got a message from tess saying is castle crashers any good if it is I want to play so I updated to full version bought it we played it later that night and hly shit....it was fuckin' fun as hell. I loved it. Alone it was.....ok....it's not a bad game....but multiplayer it's a damn fuckton of fun.

PostPosted:**Thu Sep 04, 2008 9:20 am**

SineSwiper wrote:The BC:R demo was total shit, however

I haven't played the demo, so I'm making a guess here: some of that might have been getting used to the gameplay. Namely, no jumping. I heard people on 1up Yours and Retronauts who had never played it say how difficult it was to get used to not being able to jump. Since I played it so long ago when I was so young, I've forgotten if I was ever frustrated before I "got it."

Also, Tessian, I thought Zeus' post was reasonable. He mentioned XBox Live in the beginning, but the rest was his take on the worthiness of downloadable games. I disagree with a lot of what he says (is the difference of $5 really that much?), but it was rational.

PostPosted:**Thu Sep 04, 2008 9:24 am**

Nevermind that. The demo was exactly one screens worth of a level. It was a 1/3rd of the first level without any sort of boss fight. Totally horrible execution of trying to showcase a game.

PostPosted:**Thu Sep 04, 2008 9:27 am**

Ha, seriously? That's pretty bad.

PostPosted:**Thu Sep 04, 2008 1:19 pm**

Oh yeah, I completely agree with Sine. The BC:RA demo was horrible for anyone who wasn't already anticipating the game. It sure as fuck wasn't gonna make you change your mind about buying it. The Braid demo is a lot better, it's just fucking irritating that almost everywhere you want to go is blocked off, but that's expected

$5 does make that much of a difference IMO, particularly when you're talking about an intangible product